A CRIMINOLOGIST who exchanged hundreds of letters with Suzy Lamplugh murder suspect John Cannan has revealed sensational new details linking him to the case.

Christopher Berry-Dee researched a book on the Sutton Coldfield sex monster, who is serving a whole life sentence for the rape and murder of Bristol newlywed Shirley Banks in 1987.

He is also suspected of killing South Coast insurance clerk Sandra Court a year earlier – two months before estate agent Suzy vanished.

Last week West Mercia Police dug up a Worcestershire field in a new search for the body of Suzy, who disappeared after meeting a potential house buyer calling himself Mr Kipper.

Serial offender Cannan, 54, had been known as Kipper in prison before Suzy’s disappearance, while his ex-girlfriend Gilly Paige once claimed he confessed to her about burying the estate agent near to Norton Barracks, Pershore.

Now Mr Berry-Dee has claimed trace DNA evidence was found in an old Ford Sierra once owned by Cannan – which reveals Suzy was once in the car.

And he said the vehicle also boasted false number plates which carried her initials SLP – and the year of her disappearance.

The author said: “I received hundreds of beautifully written, immaculate letters from Cannan all denying that he had anything to do with the murder, but all giving hints and clues.

“He likes playing games with detectives.”

Police have previously publicly named Cannan as the prime suspect in the disappearance of Suzy, whose body has never been found. He has been interviewed by detectives on a number of occasions about the case but has never made any admissions.

He also made similar denials over the murder of Sandra Court.

Mr Berry-Dee, 63, said: “When I was looking into the Sandra Court killing, Cannan would deny ever being in the vicinity of the murder.

“But in amongst police evidence on that case was a pay and display ticket that proved he was in Bournemouth the day she was killed. He also knew the roads where her belongings were scattered like the back of his hand.

“He was in a halfway house at the time, on day release from a bail hostel, and was driving a red Ford Sierra car.

“I believe that was the car that Suzy Lamplugh was later abducted in. We went through all the evidence with detectives, and wondered if there could be trace evidence in that car linking her to her killer.

“They found the car when the case was re-opened in 2000, and I understand they did find trace evidence of both Cannan and Suzy Lamplugh.

“That proves they had both been in the car at some point in their lives.

“He also had his own number plate put on with the registration SLP 386. The SLP could represent Suzy Lamplugh’s initials, the number three could represent his third victim and the last two numbers may indicate 1986.

‘‘This evidence has never been put before a jury because the Crown Prosecution Service will not proceed without a confession.

“The detectives went to prison and put all of this to Cannan, but he didn’t crack. So they ended up making a public statement naming him as the prime suspect in the Lamplugh case.”

Miss Lamplugh was aged 25 when she vanished after making an appointment to meet a Mr Kipper in Fulham on July 28, 1986. She was officially declared dead in 1994.

On Tuesday detectives used ground-penetrating radar to examine a field near Pershore after a new witness came forward claiming they had seen digging there in 1986. The operation has now ended, with no new breakthrough.

Mr Berry-Dee had handed over hundreds of letters from Cannan to cops almost a decade ago when the case was re-opened.

“I’ve interviewed 34 serial killers. Some of them boast, some revel in their crimes, but Cannan is cold and calculating,” he said.

“He is a control freak. He believes he can control the situation from his prison cell by keeping the truth to himself, that’s how he gets his kicks.

“He’s no longer the slim, dapper, suave man he was in the 1980s. He is a total slob who has become bloated and middle-aged in jail.

“The whole thing is a game to him, he gives little pieces of the puzzle to police, but never enough to get caught.’’

Back in 2002 Cannan invited Miss Lamplugh’s parents to visit him in jail so he could tell them of his innocence. He taunted them saying: “If it was my daughter, I would bulldoze the prison gate.”

But that meeting never took place as the killer is understood to have later backtracked on the offer.

Mr Berry-Dee doubts a direct appeal from Suzy’s family would lead to a confession.

“It could be that something like an appeal, or even just his own conscience, could cause him to turn and confess one day, but at the moment I doubt it,” he said.

“If the police can find a body, take the control from his hands, then he might turn. But nothing they have tried so far has worked.

“At the moment he is a nobody, a prison number, the case files are growing old and yellow and his crimes are slipping from the public’s memory.

“The only thing keeping him going is this game with the police.”

Last year Cannan was named as a possible suspect in another murder when police discovered the remains of hospital worker Melanie Hill, found dumped on the side of the M5 near Bristol.

Mr Berry-Dee fears that Cannan may be linked to as many as five unsolved killings.

“He has gone down as an ‘emerging’ serial killer, but I have no doubt that he killed more than the three women whose deaths he is officially linked to,” the criminologist said.

“It is my belief that a lot of unsolved sex attacks and at least another three to five murders from the 1980s, all in a line from Sutton Coldfield down to the South West and to London, may have been committed by Cannan.

“He had all the attributes; the twisted mind, the lack of any conscience, the charm, the looks. He was the perfect serial killer.

“With modern technology the police will eventually find Suzy’s body and charge someone with her murder.

‘‘It wouldn’t surprise me if it eventually comes out there were many more victims of John Cannan.”